FINAL TRAILER

Please refer to Naomi Lewis's blog for the final trailer.

Evaluation - Question 4 - How did you use media technologies in the construction and research, planning and evaluation stages?

I MOVIE
I used I movie to edit my trailer, I found it quite easy to use as all the features were right there in front of you easily labeled and easily accessible. I used it to do all my editing transitions, to add sound effects and also to do my podcast.

BLOGGER 
I used blogger to keep a log of all the work that I had been doing along side the production of my teaser trailer, magazine and poster. Its is wear i did all of my research into different types of posters and magazines. I liked using blogger as i found it was a more up to date technology and also more entertaining that simply using power point. Using blogger and added videos and images whilst also adding videos and links to youtube clips that were useful for my research. 

POWERPOINT
I did a power point presentation to show my pitch ideas as to what genre etc i wanted to my teaser trailer and then took a screen grab of this and uploaded it on to my blog. Although I enjoyed using this feature once I am still glad that out overall research and planning is doe on blogger rather that on power point as blogger is more of a cnd challenge to use that power point.

PREZI 
I used Prezi to do a publication and distribution plan for my film magazine. I used it as a new way to do a presentation of what I was planning to do. I liked using prezi as it made my plan look more easy to read and fun to look at rather than just looking at a plain power point presentation or word document.

GARAGE BAND
Garage band was the software I used to add the sound to my teaser trailer, it was good because it allowed me to create loads of different sounds, that wernt just sound effects but an actual peice of music. This way we could add the perfect sound to match the genre of our teaser trailer, as ours was horror we used a number of different instruments including the piano to create the perfect peice of music to go on our teaser trailer.

PHOTOSHOP
I used photoshop to produce my film poster and magazine. This was perfect to make the both look real and professional as there are loads and loads of different features and effects to be added to make the products look as though they are real film magazine cover and poster. I used the cutting out tool to cut out images I had taken from their backgrounds and add them to my page, I used the rubber tool to neaten up the edges around the images to make sure there are no traces of the background left. I also used many other features and effects available on photoshop. 

SLR CAMERA/DV CAMERA
These cameras were used to create the still images during filming that were going to be used on my magaizne and poster. The reason i used this particular still image camera is because the picture was of a higher quality that a normal digital camera and would come out better on photoshop. The same goes also for the video cameras. We used these to film our teaser trailer and also used these specific ones because they are  of a higher quality than than regular cameras.

DA FONT.COM
This site was used because there were a wide range of fonts available to use form that would suit my genre perfectly. I looked through the fonts by selecting my particular genre and also the same for the film magazine and saved a number of fonts from the site, trialing each one until I eventually selected the one shown on my finished pieces.

Evaluation - Question 3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Evaluation - Question 2 - How efffective is the combination of your main product and ancillary tasks?

Evaluation - Question 1 - In what ways does your media products use, develop and challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Above is my completed film poster, the ways I used media convestions are;

Use

• I used convention of a media text by having the title and production company at the bottom of the page. Also by researching into the different film posters of films of the same genre and looking at the conventions of their posters. It seemed that if the poster seemed to refelct the nature, so i took this and decided to have the look on the characters face and the background to suggest the nature if the film to the viewers.

Develop

• The way i developed this is by experiementing with the colours of the background, deciding whether to have it completely cover the back page and also the size of the main image whether to have it small. But i eventually decided after much research that the poster would look more effective if the face was close up.

Challenge

• The ways I challenged conventions of a Media text is by having one cas members name at the top of the poster when it is generally two names. Also mainly was that i distorted the picture sligtly to make it look as though the characters face was fading out and blending in with the background this was done for a number of reasons, it draws attention to the background which sets the scene for the film. Whilst also allowing the character to have a creepy looking effect. The background and the face that the character is pulling as though she is looking over her shoulder which clearly lets the viewer know its a stalker film. The fading out of the face makes the background also more visible. I challenged the conventions with this poster as it looks different to usual posters and has a creepy effect.

Magazine

Use

• I used conventions of a media text by modeling my magazine on a copy of total film magazine.
• I particularly liked the layout of the films title followed by a list below of a number of a films that will be talked about in the magazine.
• I followed the conventions by keeping to a colour scheme.
• Also I kept it by having the title of the magazine at the top and by having the background image as something that is seen in a regular magazine.

Develop

• The way I developed this on my magazine is most definately by copying the film title layout from an already published magazine. Right down to the yellow circle on the top right hand corner of the page.
• I chose my colour sceme to be red, black and white as had been done with my model magazine and even had the colour of clothing on the girl to match the color sceme. But like my mode lmagazine i added the yellow circle to give it an extra bit of colour to make it look more attractive.
• The image chosen is one similar to on 'Total Film' magazine and even has a bacground as a scene chosen from the teaser trailer so the viewers who had or were going to see the film could relate to it.

Challenge

• The ways I challenged conventions of a media text is by having the page alot less crowded than a usual magazine cover would conventially look.  
• Also, although I actually modeled it on the above copy of total film which is already a published magazine, it has a slightly 'different' look to it already which is why I liked it.
• For example, the list of the contents of the magazine is usually positioned down the right hand side of the page whereas on this magazine it is unusually positioned below the films title listing down to the bottom of the page which I thought gave the magazine an origional look.
• Another way that I think showed me going against conventions was the length of the title. Research I have carried out showed that usually titles are shorter and also bolder. But i was happy with my name and thought it was effective considering what the magzine is and so changed the size and shape accordingly.

Trailer

 

Use

• I used conventions of a real film trailer by sticking to the stereotypical ideas that go with the genre that I had chosen. For example, the girl being following and the boy doing the following.
• Also I used the conventions of a real media piece when researching into other trailers, i found that it made it look more creepy to film at night and in dark places and so I decided to apply this when creating my own teaser trailer as you can see from the image above.
• Also the idea of the baddy being anonymous was something that I used from trailers I had researched.

Develop

• The way I developed this was by keeping the stalker anonymous consistent throughout the trailer as had been done on other productions I had seen.
• Also I had previously stated about filming in dark locations to keep it having that creepy eary feel and so when i filmed the bedroom scene to stick to this idea I decided to use the dim bedroom light to creatre a similar effect as would have been created in an outside scene.
• The over the shoulder shot shown in picture three is a stereotrpical horror/stalker scene that is shown in a number of different films with the same genre as ours and to make sure the genrte was clear i decided to reflect this is my trailer.

Challenge

• The ways I challenged the conventions of a regular teaser trailer is by not having any gory scenes shown in the trailer which would be generally stereotypical of a horror movie. I think by doing this it leaves the audience viewing the trailer in suspense and waning to see the film.
• Also another thing that we did for the above reason aswell was to have the characters in the trailer only speak a few words rather than talk over the trailer. This way the sound effects and music can be clearly heard which is generally what the audience gets the effect from.
• I had found from other trailers that a lot of teaser trailers reveal alot of their plot quite quickly, so we decided it would be better if we kept that to a minimum in our therefore making the audience want to come and se it even more.

As you can see from the trailer of the 2006 film ' When a stranger calls' the majority if not all of the scenes are in a dark setting.

Final Trailer

Research and Planning - Asking for feedback on poster and magazine

The images above show me asking people for feedback on my magazine and poster using the social networking site 'facebook' .

Research and Planning - Almost completed trailer



This is the almost completed teaser trailer for 'Obsession'. All the scenes excluding one - which is yet to be included - are now in place along with the sub titles in between scenes which are crucial to the effect of the trailer. A small amount of sound effects have been added to certain scenes which from this you can see the effect they and also othes added will have on the final effect made.

Research and Planning - Completed Magazine Cover

This is the completed version of my film magazine. I have been modeling my film magazine on an issue of total film as I liked the layout of the issue. That is why i decided to have the background as the bridge and the two characters framing the bridge because ut sets the scene perfectly for what the teaser trailer is about. The girl is being followed by the boy in the image and so I thought it would be appropriate to have him slightly more faded out to her in his usual dress code - as shown throughout the trailer. The faded aspect shows that he is not always there and is doing the following. I stick to the usual three colour code of red which is used in the trailer and also colour co-ordinated the

Completed Poster

 

This is my finished poster to go with my teaser trailer. After my last post containing a drafted version of my poster  I continued to then make some changes and improvements to finally come up with my final draft above. I changed the bottom credits shown in white to the right order and size so that they did not look distorted on the page. I also made adaptions to the main image which is obviously the main character in the centre. On my last draft the image of the girl was very zoomed in  close to her face showing her face very largely on the page but not a lot of her body and the background was blocked quite a substantial amount. It is important that the background is not blocked as it is an attractive 'audience grabbing' part of my poster. I decided to keep it simple with the main and background images blending in together together so it was easier to get the full effect of the black and white stalker board behind and also the faded out image gives that 'unseen' effect. Another way I decided to keep it simple was by just having the one main character name at the top of the poster instead of a slogan or more that one name.

Research and Planning - Poster Adaptions

Research and Planning - Film magazine Adaptions

Research and Planning - Magazine Model

Research and Planning: Film Poster (update)

 

This is the updated version of my poster for my teaser trailer. I decided to choose one of the images I took, cut it out and put it against the background of the stalker board I created with images of the actress herself. But when i put the picture against the background, because I wanted it to be a third of the page so that it easily stood out, it covered the majority of the stalker board background which then consequently lessened the desired effect. So i decided to make the image transparent so it looked almost as if the girl was not there with her looking over her shoulder as if she is being watched. This also allowed the background to be seen as well as the girl. I am happy with the title font 'Obsession', is bold and easily matches the films genre. I wanted the 'coming soon' sign to be in red but i am not happy with the shade of red or the font so I think I will be making a number of changes to this as I continue to work on my poster.  Also i am either going to add a slogan phrase at the top of the page that will further advertise the film or the actors name. I have not quite decided which yet but either will both make the film poster look more authentic.

Research and Planning - Film magazine draft

Research and Planning - Poster Rough Draft

 

This is simply the rough draft of my poster. All that has been done here so far is the background images have been taken and also the title text. I still have a lot of work to do on this poster including images, effects and more text. When I have made improvements to my poster I will post another blog on here to show what those improvements are/

Research and Planning - Dis-used Poster Idea

When i was designing my poster for the teaser trailer I couldn't decide between two designs and so decided to construct them both, analyse the two and then decide which one I thought would be the most effective and also the most suitable for my the story of the teaser trailer. This is my first design, I am sure about the font used for the heading because I think its bold and well suited to the theme and genre, but the background picture is a long shot view of the bed and the stalker board whereas my next idea design is a close up of the stalker board.

Research and Planning - Test shots for film mag and poster

These are a couple of shots i took with the camera to practice the kind of shots I wanted for my magazine cover and poster. The background on the bottom picture was not a problem as the image would have been cut out using Photoshop. But when looking at these pictures I noticed a few things that I would change about them for example they were not entirely in focus and this is the benefits of having these test shots as it allows me to improve greatly on the images when I come to take the pictures I will be using on my magazine cover and  poster. 

Research and Planning - Poster Idea

 

 I have put this image of a film poster on my blog because I like the idea presented here to be used in my own film poster. The film 'The Lake House' itself isn't a horror and doesn't have any similarities to the  teaser trailer I am creating but the poster image is perfect for the mood I am trying to create in my film poster. The girl is slightly looking over her shoulder with the man standing directly behind her, it looks almost as if she doesn't know that he is there, this making it look mysterious and interesting. Also another idea that grabbed me was the way his colour is darker and slightly more faded out that hers is, which looks as if he's there but not seen. Which is exactly the theme of our film, 'stalking'.

Research and Planning - Location Recces 2

 

 

This video shows the location in which we did our second bit of filming. It was in a simply decorated apartment that we hired for the day specifically for the filming of the teaser trailer. We only used the one bedroom for filming which was perfectly decorated in white with a bed against a sheer empty wall. This was perfect as it allowed us to place every prop and item perfectly where we wanted it to help create the desired effect. Here you can see where we placed the camera and tri-pod at the end of the bed to film the wall with the images of the girl which we were able to stick on in the place we felt most suitable. We did the risk assessment on the apartment and found that it would be a perfect location to do the filming for our teaser trailer.   

Research and Planning - Actor Release Form

 

This here is the actor release form signed by Sophie who is playing the girl being stalked in our teaser trailer and it is also signed by a witness.  It simply says that she agrees to act in the trailer for me and Naomi and also that she understands there will be no  financial gain from doing so.

Research and Planning - Quality of images

Today we have been comparing the quality of pictures taken with an SLR camera against pictures taken with a regular digital camera. We took the same photos on each cameras, in both inside and outside locations and then analysed them together looking for the differences between the two.
Here is an example of two of the same pictures we have taken, we circled the differences of the normal digital camera on the left, with the SLR camera on the right in red below. From this we can clearly see that the quality of the images produced with the SLR camera are far better than those produced with the regular digital camera. From testing out this theory I have decided that when taking the images and intend on using for my film poster and magaize cover that the best camera to use will be the SLR as the images are far better in quality and look more of a proffessional standard.

Researh and Planning - Rough Cut of Teaser Trailer

This is the rough cut of our teaser trailer. It is not the finished rough cut, as we still have a small number of scenes and finishing touches to add to the trailer. As you can see we have filmed in two different locations, one being indoors and one being out doors. To go with these scenes I have put together two location reccess so you can see where the shots were filmed. One was by a train line and one was in an apartment which we managed to hire for the day specifically to film the trailer. It was difficult trying to cut out all the necessary scenes down to a minimum whilst still trying to make the trailer flow and make sense to the audience. We managed to cut down the trailer to under one minute and this is without the scenes that still have to be filmed. So we now have a lot more cutting down of the scenes above and also the transitions to be put in and also the scenes which will have text on.  

Research and Planning - Location Recces

Here are a few images of the location some of the scenes for my teaser trailer were filmed. The location is where the end following scenes take place. It was chosen because it fit the bill for a typical 'chase' scene. It is a path where on one side is the slip road for a motorway and on the other side is a church. We filmed the scene at night and so the noise from the motorway added to the effect along with the creepy stereotypical look that a church has at night. This proved to be a perfect location to film the chase scene as we were having a shot from the characters point of view as if she was running, so we hear her breath down the camera and their is no music and so the sound from the motorway acts as a form of scary soundtrack to go alongside this where their is no sountrack or sound effects.